


Roll Away Your Stone

by BrownieFox



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Crying, Episode 110, Gen, Matryoshka, Missing Scene, abby is just mentioned, cecil is with carlos, it just aint mentioned in the fic, mentions of reeducation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-30 00:04:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17213357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownieFox/pseuds/BrownieFox
Summary: Cecil tells Steve why he hates him.Expansion of the scene mentioned in Matryoshka





	Roll Away Your Stone

“It’s like the arrows in the sky!” Steve commented as Cecil finished explaining Josie and the angels. Steve had never known Josie, but he wished he had. He had never gone to visit, mostly because he was already constantly in hot water with the entire town, the last thing he needed was to add ‘Angel Associate’ to the long list.

Cecil rolled his eyes, and Steve could see his mouth part inevitably to rebuke him again. And something snapped. Steve’s eyes locked onto Cecil’s, a fierce rush of energy driving inside of him into a single word.

“Stop.”

Cecil’s expression changed into pure shock, like a bucket of ice water had been been dumped on him. Steve breathed in another breath, not knowing what it was going to lead to, and Cecil did the same nearly in sync. And in that moment, staring his brother-in-law in the eyes, it was like Steve has finally seeing Cecil, the real Cecil, for the first time. The Cecil that Abby occasionally mentioned in the few stories she told of her past. The Cecil that Carlos waxed nigh poetic about. The Cecil that Josie had known.

And Steve knew, with a certainty he couldn’t explain, that Cecil was also seeing him. Steve Carlsberg, not through Cecil’s biased perception of him, but as the man he truly was.

The sob ripped its way through Steve’s throat, tears tracking down his face at the sudden relief of truly being seen, of an odd type of intimacy he had given up on having with Cecil. Steve put his hand to his mouth, muffling the sobs as he steadied himself against the door frame. He maintained eye contact with Cecil, and the other man still seemed too shocked to break it.

“It – It hurts me when you joke,” Steve choked out, voice rougher than usually. He swallowed down another sob, wiping away some more of the tears spilling down his face. The words he hadn’t even known he’d always wanted to ask poured out of his mouth. “If you don’t like me, just… tell me why, and we can work it out.”

Cecil’s face didn’t change expression, but his gaze did finally drop away from Steve as he fell back into his chair in the recording booth. He looked over at the recording equipment, one hand gently pushing the microphone as far from his face as he could. Steve could see Cecil’s eyes dart around, the man’s breathing deep as if he was going to start crying too.

“I…” Cecil’s voice, always so smooth and crisp, sounded ragged. “I don’t know if, uh, if Abby told you, but when we were young, we didn’t really get along.”

Steve could remember Abby saying something of the like before and nodded. Cecil scrubbed his face with one of his hands, and a deep tiredness that Steve could emphasize with settled onto his features. As the radio host took a moment to collect his thoughts, Steve pulled up the chair usually given to guest speakers. It took a couple of minutes for Cecil to go on.

“I can’t… _remember_ , exactly, what it was between us. Maybe it was just sibling things, or maybe it was… another thing, that I just… don’t know.” Cecil sighed, and the word ‘remember’ sounded like it was being forced out of him. “But when our mother died… we live in such a small town, Night Vale, but the funeral preparations was the first time I’d talked to her in years. We kept in touch after that. The only thing we’d ever had in common was the same living mother, and being who she was, I think she may’ve contributed to the rift between Abby and me. Then, a dead mother was what we had in common, and it brought us back together, just a little bit. Enough so that when a man I’d never known existed left her when she was pregnant with Janice, she came to me.

“Have you ever seen Abby cry, Steve? I’m sure I have, plenty of times, but that night is the first time I can clearly remember. I’d promised I would stand by her no matter what choice she made, but I’ll admit I was… thrilled, ecstatic, when she decided to carry Janice full term. We didn’t know, then, but the damage was done. We researched spina bifida for… hours, days, weeks. Every free second I had to spare was spent learning more about it. I narrowed the cause down to two probable things, from before Abby knew Janice was in her, not that it really mattered, the damage being done. Janice was born, spine incorrectly formed, and the medical bills started up. Abby refused to live with me, but we both got smaller apartments. I stayed late at work, taking on extra shifts, doing any position Station Management could ever ask me to do and then some. Every cent I could spare went to Abby and Janice. If I wasn’t working, I was watching Janice while Abby worked. It was the three of us against the world.

“And then you came in, Steve.”

Cecil finally looked into Steve’s eyes again. There wasn’t hate there, like there usually was when Cecil looked at Steve, but just… pain, deep and intense that the anger had usually covered up. Raw, never given the chance to heal.

Steve could still remember clearly the first time he met Abby. She was two years older than him, so they’d never ran into each other when they attended school. Oddly enough, however, their first meeting was in Night Vale Elementary. Steve wasn’t a part of the PTA yet, not having a kid, but he had burst into the meeting, begging them to start teaching the kids about the lines in the sky and the government watching them. Of course, they all ignored him, and the Sheriff’s Secret Police that always tailed him were entering the building to take him in for reeducation. Just as they got to him, however, the most beautiful woman Steve had ever seen entered the room, demanding to know how accessible the place was to children in wheelchairs.

It wasn’t an amazing first meeting by any standards, and Steve wasn’t even sure Abby had noticed him, but she had stuck in his head throughout his reeducation. The next meeting was at the Big Rico’s, both grabbing a mandatory slice, and Steve spoke to her for the first time.

“I was… so caught up in work, I didn’t even realize she was in a relationship until I got the wedding announcement. Carlos always tells me I get too caught up in my work. He doesn’t even know how bad I used to be.” Cecil chuckled, but there was no humor behind it. “I met you, Steve, and I’m sure you remember me objecting at the wedding. You scared me, the only person that could possibly have been in for reeducation more than me. I was worried about Abby and Janice being near you, being caught up in your claims, being Reeducated,” Cecil’s hands clenched into shaking fists. “And then… you were married to her. You had a well-paying job that took care of Janice’s hospital bills, and Abby let you in in ways I don’t know or understand. I didn’t need to send Abby checks so she could get through the week. I didn’t get any calls in the middle of the night when my sister needed somebody to lean on. I was… an uncle, just an uncle. After years of worrying over them both, you took all of those responsibilities away from me.

“I’ve never been… very good, at letting people in. So when you took from me, the fear I already had developed into anger, and it was so much easier to just stay angry, to keep you at arms-length. To blame you for everything that ever went wrong in my life. And… I’m sorry about that, Steve.” Steve had never been one for holding grudges, and in this case he had never been mad to begin with. Even if he had been, though, seeing the vulnerability in Cecil’s face as the bore his heart to Steve, as they communicated with each other more than they ever had, Steve forgave Cecil for everything he’d ever said about him.

Steve stood, slowly, and the Cecil did as well. Steve was taller than Cecil, a whole head taller, and the man looked up at him, expression changing into grim determination. Steve wrapped his arms around Cecil, holding him tightly to his chest. He could feel Cecil’s breaths shudder and almost flinched when Cecil own arms hesitantly wound their way around Steve, returning the hug for the first time in their relationship. The shuddering breaths persisted in tandem with the tears soaking into Steve’s shirt where Cecil’s head was.

“It’s okay,” Steve comforted, “I love you, Cecil. You’re my brother, how can I not?”

They stood like that for a long moment. Healing takes time, but it was a good start.


End file.
